Programme

Education

We provide children the opportunity to learn, grow, and realize their full potential.

A girl learning in school
UNICEF Philippines/2024/Larry Monserate Piojo
Jump to

The current state

Quality education is a fundamental human right. In the Philippines, however, many children are left behind. Access to quality learning, especially for the youngest learners, is limited to families with the money or opportunity.

The country is experiencing a ‘learning crisis’ that prevents children in the Philippines from achieving their full potential. Compared to countries at the same economic level, the Philippines is behind by five to six years’ worth of schooling (PISA, 2022). Furthermore, there are huge disparities within the country, with regions like the Bangsamoro falling behind others by an additional two years (UNICEF, 2024).

90 per cent of 10-year-olds cannot read a simple text (SEA-PLM, 2019)

83 per cent of 10-year-olds did not have minimum proficiency in Math (SEA-PLM, 2019)

81 per cent of 3 to 4-year-olds are not attending preschool (PSA APIS, 2022)

7 per cent (over 1.5 million) of 10 to 19-year-olds are out of school (PSA APIS, 2022)

Among the current challenges are the impacts of climate change on education, digitalization needs, and sustainable development.

The learning crisis jeopardizes the future of the entire Philippines, whose economic lifeblood and basis for a sustainable future is its young population. Without an educated citizenry and a skilled workforce, it will fail to cash in on its demographic dividend, miss out on the opportunity to strengthen its economy and society, and improve the lives of its people.

All data sources can be found at Situation of Children Philippines, unless otherwise noted. 

Our goal, our commitment

Investing in children’s education now is an investment in your future. Education has far-reaching and long-term economic and social benefits—improving health, increasing resilience, mitigating conflicts, and creating sustainable economic growth for everyone.  

Committed to leaving no child behind, UNICEF works for and with children – from early childhood to adolescence—to ensure inclusive and sustainable access to quality education for all.

Our work, our initiatives

There is no time like the present for reforms. Taking advantage of the Philippines’ change mindset and resilience, UNICEF aims to transform the current education system and make it accessible, adaptable, flexible and relevant to the needs of every child. 

To realize this vision, we partner with the Philippine government, the education sector, and the private sector to strengthen infrastructure, upgrade teaching and learning skills, introduce digitalization, and implement a curriculum that will help children become agile, active, and resilient learners—well-prepared to navigate the challenges of the coming decades. 

Here are our key efforts:

  1. Establishing universal, quality, inclusive and holistic education through advocacy
  2. Developing policies, standards, and plans, especially for early childhood care and development
  3. Strengthening system for governance, monitoring, quality assurance and accountability
  4. Initiating and scaling up innovations that will target learning recovery, digitization, and employability
  5. Ensuring uninterrupted learning during disasters through emergency preparedness, response and recovery.